Those times when artificial flowers in the house caused negativity have long since sunk into oblivion. Today, such products are no longer associated with coarse rose-like flowers made of paper or plastic.
Silicone flowers for the interior is an innovative technique for creating artificial plants. Such flowers have a very delicate and fragile appearance, which will fully convey to the owner the uniqueness of wildlife.
Moreover, if you do not know what such flowers were made of, then you will hardly be able to find out about their artificial origin.
Silicone flowers for the interior. Classification.
How to choose silicone flowers for the interior? There are several categories of silicone masterpieces, which, as a rule, differ in the country of manufacture. In general, the birthplace of such masterpieces is usually either China or Poland. Chinese products will cost one and a half to two times more than silk flowers, and Polish ones - 2-2.5 times more expensive than silk counterparts. However, there is an important nuance here: upon close examination, silk flowers immediately give out their fabric texture.
Silicone flowers for the interior are handmade products, which explains their high cost. But the differences between such artificial flowers and natural ones are extremely difficult to find! In addition, often in expensive products, manufacturers even convey the natural transparency of the petals.
No less interesting is the fact of the durability of such items: silicone flowers will be able to please you for at least 10 years. And, judge for yourself, during this time they will be able to fully pay off! They do not need special care, it is only necessary to occasionally rinse them with water. Neither the paint nor the entire structure as a whole suffers from such a procedure.
If we talk about the assortment, then here you are given a simply grandiose choice: tulips, peonies, roses, orchids. Even the most sophisticated will be able to easily pick up flowers to their liking. Moreover, many brands provide the opportunity to immediately purchase ready-made compositions from such flowers, which will greatly simplify the process of decorating the interior.
You can also buy one flower at a time, therefore, there is always the opportunity to collect original bouquets on your own, transforming your home and developing the skill of floristry.
Advantages and disadvantages
Do silicone flowers for the interior have disadvantages? If the above arguments still do not convince you, then you can find out about other advantages of silicone artificial flowers:
- Such vegetation does not need watering, transplanting, fertilizing and other "joys" of gardeners.
- You will not have the need for pots of earth, vases of water, which are constantly under threat from young households and pets. In addition, the latter are unlikely to be poisoned, deciding to taste the amazing flower.
- The absence of dry falling leaves and petals that create a mess in the room.
- Silicone flowers for the interior are just a godsend for those who are allergic to pollen, as the material is completely hypoallergenic.
- Silicone flowers can be placed not only on the windowsills, but also anywhere in the house. Now the window sill can be occupied with other useful items. Even the most ideal things at first glance are not without flaws. Among the disadvantages of silicone artificial flowers are the following:
- Some time costs that will be needed for regular cleaning of such products with running water cannot be avoided.
- These flowers are devoid of fragrance. But this can be easily corrected with the help of aromatic oil, which should be dropped onto silicone. Your flower has now acquired a favorite scent for a few days.
- It is important to be careful when handling the stem of such an artificial flower, since it can be damaged with a strong mechanical impact.
Stylization "seasons"
Silicone flowers for the interior are perfect for stylizing the "Seasons" - this is one of the most popular variations of using silicone flowers in room design. In this case, you have 2 implementation options to choose from:
- Thanks to such plants, it is possible to “drive out” the grayness of the cold and autumn boredom from the house in the winter. To do this, you can decorate the walls, chandeliers and tables of rooms with silicone sakura branches, apple blossoms or wreaths of silicone wildflowers. So you can feel the aroma of spring even on the eve of the New Year holidays.
- A more harmonious option, which involves a change in design after the change of season. In summer, you can arrange bright bouquets of roses and chrysanthemums around the house, in autumn there is always the opportunity to dress the apartment in red-orange colors, in winter you can hang mistletoe wreaths near the ceiling.
- Well, for spring, simple compositions of violets, lilies of the valley and snowdrops are perfect. Such stylization will provide the bedroom or living room with unsurpassed comfort and harmony, relieving you of boredom.
We create a festive atmosphere
Decorating an apartment with silicone flowers is a great solution for any upcoming celebration. Use silicone flowers for the interior and the simplest flower will be able to fill the room with a festive atmosphere. For all events there are traditions that should be considered when decorating.
Making flowers and fruits from siliconeMaster class is conducted by Elena Samsonova
I offer you a master class on making beads from acetic construction silicone (acidic silicone sealant). When buying a sealant, keep in mind that in addition to silicone, others (urethane, acrylic, etc.) are also sold, the properties of which are not considered in this article. So, if you bought a transparent silicone sealant at a hardware or hardware store (you can also buy white and also tint it, or blue, red or black, to which you can not add dye), open it and smell vinegar - you bought exactly the one which we will talk about below.
Acetic silicone sealants are considered to be cleaned and therefore they are used in rooms with increased sanitary requirements. They seal the seams in ovens, refrigerators and other places in contact with food. These sealants are environmentally friendly and safe for human health, they can be worked without special means protection, not forgetting only about good ventilation, since caustic acetic acid in high concentrations, it can irritate sensitive skin and mucous membranes. Safer than acetic sealants are only specially designed sealants for aquariums. Aquarium silicone is absolutely harmless to living organisms. But it does not become so immediately, but 7-14 days after application, i.e., when the vulcanization reaction is completely completed. So it’s worth looking for a sealant not only in hardware and construction stores, but also go to a pet store. Avoid using silicone with antifungal ingredients - it is intended only for grouting joints in toilets and bathrooms, such silicone should not be allowed to come into contact with food.
Silicone after hardening retains rubber-like elasticity and plasticity. Therefore, it is not worth painting and / or varnishing silicone products - it will peel off anyway. If desired, paint (food coloring is best) or ink can be mixed with silicone that has not yet hardened immediately after opening the container, and work with the painted one. When adding a dye, keep in mind that it can change the properties of silicone, slow down or speed up the curing process. Add paint literally drop by drop - for 50-80 ml of silicone, about half a teaspoon of dye is more than enough, and even less is better. Water-based paints speed up the silicone vulcanization process - if you tint silicone with such paints, after 5-10 minutes it will be almost impossible to squeeze it out. Cured silicone has increased moisture resistance, withstands both low and high temperatures (from -50C to +200C), does not dissolve in most acids and alkalis.
To make silicone beads you will need:
1. Silicone (for one "seat" 50-80 ml) transparent, white or any other color you need.
2. Dye (ballpoint or gel pen ink, non-water based paints, food coloring, etc.) if you choose to tint the silicone.
3. Toothpicks, wooden skewers or sticks.
4. Gloves (not latex). You can do without gloves - just try not to get dirty and wipe your hands more often.
5. Toilet paper or tissues (lots).
6. Small plastic bags, or a syringe, or disposable plastic cooking bags.
7. Scissors.
8. Disposable syringe. The ideal option is the smallest sizes of cooking nozzles, with a simple round hole (#2, #3), a hole for leaves (#65s, #65) if desired, and a third for petals (#101, #102). But you can do without nozzles: you just need to make a small slit in the bag and squeeze through it, or use disposable syringes or homemade nozzles made of plastic or caps from pens. If you have a whole set of such nozzles, then you can do anything with silicone.
9. Wax paper, newspaper or cellophane to protect the work surface.
Silicone "production" is quite easily soiled - stock up on napkins and often wipe your hands and everything else about them. Before washing with soap and water, both hands and tools should be thoroughly dried, getting rid of all silicone if possible (remember: silicone hardens precisely from moisture).
After hardening, silicone easily breaks away from plastic and polyethylene. But metal and glass can be a little tricky to clean. If you don't mind, stock up on a special solvent for your sealant, then it will be quite easy to clean the tools. They say that white spirit also helps a lot, but usually just paper napkins are enough for me.
So, you squeezed transparent or white silicone from the tube into a palette (glass ashtray, disposable cup, etc.), mixed it with a wooden (for ice cream) or plastic (for lollipop) stick with a drop of paint or ink.
Then we place the tinted paste in a syringe, in a prepared bag with a nozzle, a bag for silicone, or simply in a bag with a small hole cut in the corner - the size and shape of the squeezed silicone drops will depend on the size and shape of the hole. The photo shows the bag I use. Since it is not cone-shaped (you can use a disposable cooking bag - then everything is very simple), I had to wrap the junction with the nozzle with electrical tape so that the silicone does not flow over the edges, but goes directly into the nozzle. If you use a syringe or a piping bag, this will not be a problem. Yes, and this is not a problem at all if there is electrical tape or adhesive tape in the house.
We put a bead (glass, wooden or plastic) on a toothpick and begin to gently squeeze silicone out of the bag onto it. Base beads for working with silicone The shape of the silicone will also depend on the shape of the base bead. You can take round, oval, conical, elongated and any other beads to achieve the desired result.
Roses and Christmas trees are best squeezed onto cone-shaped or elongated beads.
Raspberries and brambles work well on round, oval and cone-shaped. Corn is best done on a long basis. Pineapple - on the oval. Any other images and flowers may require a base of any shape - the limits are only limited by your imagination. Interesting effects can be achieved with uncolored transparent silicone, applying it to multi-colored beads or beads with sparkles.
Keep in mind that working time silicone about 30 min. It depends on the temperature and humidity of the air, as well as on the dye used. In humid and warm air, silicone can harden already in the 5th minute. It is very good if you can find a dye that allows you to work with silicone longer.
For example, I realized that from one dye (water-based) my silicone hardens literally after the third bead, I began to add another type of ink (alcohol based) to it, which prevents the silicone from hardening so quickly. The result was a mixture with which I can safely work for 30-40 minutes and manage to make about 10 beads during this time. Experiment! And find the best color and time option.
Keep in mind that too much paint can adversely affect the silicone formula and prevent it from curing at all. Normally, silicone hardens in 24 hours so that it can be touched without disturbing the shape of the bead. If on the third day your beads remain too soft and sticky, then the dye was chosen unsuccessfully - try another one.
The process of making blackberry beads from silicone.
To squeeze out round droplets, squeeze the silicone through the round hole while holding the tip at a 45 degree angle to the surface of the base bead. Squeeze some silicone onto the bead so that the droplet falls with its flat cut onto the surface of the bead in the right place (we start dripping from the top hole). Continue applying even pressure to the syringe or sachet until a round droplet of the desired size is formed. Then stop pressing and sharply move the tip down, smearing the remaining silicone on the base bead (as if wiping it on the bead). Repeat this movement until you get the desired effect. For raspberries and blackberries, you will need to cover the entire bead with droplets, placing them in a circle, close to each other in a checkerboard pattern.
Needles are also made using a round or slightly oval hole. Silicone beads with needlesAim the tip at the base at a right angle. Squeeze out the required amount of paste, stop squeezing and lift the tip sharply up at the same right angle - the silicone will come off the tip, leaving a trace in the form of a needle tail. Place the next drop close to the previous one. Fill the entire surface of the bead.
It is convenient to adjust the length and direction of the "thorns" and clean up various irregularities with the tip of a toothpick.
Roses are best squeezed out of a flat or slightly curved narrow opening. The process of making a silicone rose bead If there is no special nozzle (No. 101 or No. 102), try to make it from a cap from a pen, for example, or mold it from plastic, making the desired slot with a blade or a sharp thin knife. For the base, mold from plastic or choose a cone-shaped bead. Squeeze out the petals in turn in a circle, starting from the top. Point the tip at an angle to the bead (slightly away from it), gradually increasing the angle of inclination.
At the same time as squeezing out the paste, turn the bead on the toothpick so that the petals lie in a spiral.
You yourself can come up with any other flowers - dandelions, chrysanthemums, various buds. You just need to change the shape of the nozzle, as well as the angle, direction and intensity of extrusion of silicone. It is convenient to correct and clean up irregularities with the tip of a toothpick.
It is convenient to attach leaves to flowers and berries even when the beads have completely hardened. Adding leaves to silicone beads Then you can remove the finished berry from the toothpick (if it is a little stuck, you can cut the silicone with nail scissors or half a razor blade), turn it upside down with the side where the sepal should start from and calmly squeeze the leaves, masking the remaining irregularities with them if necessary.
In the absence of a special culinary nozzle (No. 65 or No. 65s), the leaves are made the same as the needles, with a round or oval hole. It is only necessary to direct the hand when tearing off at the angle required by the leaves, not necessarily at 90 degrees. If there is a nozzle, practice squeezing the leaves of the desired size and shape with it. Different force and duration of pressure on the syringe or bag will determine the shape of the leaf (its width, length, location).
The surface of silicone products is rubbery to the touch, and various fibers, threads, especially woolen hairs easily stick to it. Therefore, I would not recommend using silicone for jewelry, especially for winter. Bracelet, earrings, beads will collect all the fibers from your favorite sweater, scarf, or blouse. In summer, wearing such products will be less problematic. Miniature silicone beads in the form of flowers and berries (by the way, who else has ideas of what to squeeze out? hedgehogs, frogs, spider bugs? They can serve as excellent accessories for your dolls, decorative elements, decoration for jars for dried fruits, saucers for jam ( see above - acetic silicone is absolutely harmless a week after application. Such beads are not afraid of either cold or heat, they are not afraid of alcohol, soap and other cleaners. They can be washed, frozen and put in the oven.
Silicone withstands heat up to 200C if no paint is added. Please note that if a dye has been added, the heat-resistant properties of the silicone may change. Industrially manufactured specifically for high temperatures, red sealant withstands temperatures up to 400C. But if, for example, you mix into transparent silicone acrylic paints, then in the oven, already at 100 degrees, anything can happen with silicone due to an increase in the percentage of water and acrylic in it, so it’s probably better not to experiment with the oven, I guess.
Silicone beads can be stretched in any direction - they are elastic. They can be dropped (if the glass bead inside does not break, nothing will happen to the silicone). But they are very easy to cut and pierce with sharp objects. The widespread use of silicone glue to add volume to decoupage elements was mentioned above. So you can safely include silicone beads in projects using the decoupage technique or, for example, painting on glass (considering that the silicone itself should not be varnished and painted - it will crack).
Have you already understood what boundless scope for imagination this material opens up? So go and create!
source - http://md-zadina.ru/
Making flowers and fruits from siliconeMaster class is conducted by Elena Samsonova
I offer you a master class on making beads from acetic construction silicone (acidic silicone sealant). When buying a sealant, keep in mind that in addition to silicone, others (urethane, acrylic, etc.) are also sold, the properties of which are not considered in this article. So, if you bought a transparent silicone sealant at a hardware or hardware store (you can also buy white and also tint it, or blue, red or black, to which you can not add dye), open it and smell vinegar - you bought exactly the one which we will talk about below.
Acetic silicone sealants are considered cleaned and therefore they are used in rooms with increased sanitary requirements. They seal the seams in ovens, refrigerators and other places in contact with food. These sealants are environmentally friendly and safe for human health, they can be worked with without special protective equipment, not forgetting only about good ventilation, since caustic acetic acid in high concentrations can irritate sensitive skin and mucous membranes. Safer than acetic sealants are only specially designed sealants for aquariums. Aquarium silicone is absolutely harmless to living organisms. But it does not become so immediately, but 7-14 days after application, i.e., when the vulcanization reaction is completely completed. So it’s worth looking for a sealant not only in hardware and construction stores, but also go to a pet store. Avoid using silicone with antifungal ingredients - it is intended only for grouting joints in toilets and bathrooms, such silicone should not be allowed to come into contact with food.
Silicone after hardening retains rubber-like elasticity and plasticity. Therefore, it is not worth painting and / or varnishing silicone products - it will peel off anyway. If desired, paint (food coloring is best) or ink can be mixed with silicone that has not yet hardened immediately after opening the container, and work with the painted one. When adding a dye, keep in mind that it can change the properties of silicone, slow down or speed up the curing process. Add paint literally drop by drop - for 50-80 ml of silicone, about half a teaspoon of dye is more than enough, and even less is better. Water-based paints speed up the silicone vulcanization process - if you tint silicone with such paints, after 5-10 minutes it will be almost impossible to squeeze it out. Cured silicone has increased moisture resistance, withstands both low and high temperatures (from -50C to +200C), does not dissolve in most acids and alkalis.
To make silicone beads you will need:
1. Silicone (for one "seat" 50-80 ml) transparent, white or any other color you need.
2. Dye (ballpoint or gel pen ink, non-water based paints, food coloring, etc.) if you choose to tint the silicone.
3. Toothpicks, wooden skewers or sticks.
4. Gloves (not latex). You can do without gloves - just try not to get dirty and wipe your hands more often.
5. Toilet paper or tissues (lots).
6. Small plastic bags, or a syringe, or disposable plastic cooking bags.
7. Scissors.
8. Disposable syringe. The ideal option is the smallest sizes of cooking nozzles, with a simple round hole (#2, #3), a hole for leaves (#65s, #65) if desired, and a third for petals (#101, #102). But you can do without nozzles: you just need to make a small slit in the bag and squeeze through it, or use disposable syringes or homemade nozzles made of plastic or caps from pens. If you have a whole set of such nozzles, then you can do anything with silicone.
9. Wax paper, newspaper or cellophane to protect the work surface.
Silicone "production" is quite easily soiled - stock up on napkins and often wipe your hands and everything else about them. Before washing with soap and water, both hands and tools should be thoroughly dried, getting rid of all silicone if possible (remember: silicone hardens precisely from moisture).
After hardening, silicone easily breaks away from plastic and polyethylene. But metal and glass can be a little tricky to clean. If you don't mind, stock up on a special solvent for your sealant, then it will be quite easy to clean the tools. They say that white spirit also helps a lot, but usually just paper napkins are enough for me.
So, you squeezed transparent or white silicone from the tube into a palette (glass ashtray, disposable cup, etc.), mixed it with a wooden (for ice cream) or plastic (for lollipop) stick with a drop of paint or ink.
Then we place the tinted paste in a syringe, in a prepared bag with a nozzle, a bag for silicone, or simply in a bag with a small hole cut in the corner - the size and shape of the squeezed silicone drops will depend on the size and shape of the hole. The photo shows the bag I use. Since it is not cone-shaped (you can use a disposable cooking bag - then everything is very simple), I had to wrap the junction with the nozzle with electrical tape so that the silicone does not flow over the edges, but goes directly into the nozzle. If you use a syringe or a piping bag, this will not be a problem. Yes, and this is not a problem at all if there is electrical tape or adhesive tape in the house.
We put a bead (glass, wooden or plastic) on a toothpick and begin to gently squeeze silicone out of the bag onto it. Base beads for working with silicone The shape of the silicone will also depend on the shape of the base bead. You can take round, oval, conical, elongated and any other beads to achieve the desired result.
Roses and Christmas trees are best squeezed onto cone-shaped or elongated beads.
Raspberries and brambles work well on round, oval and cone-shaped. Corn is best done on a long basis. Pineapple - on the oval. Any other images and flowers may require a base of any shape - the limits are only limited by your imagination. Interesting effects can be achieved with uncolored transparent silicone, applying it to multi-colored beads or beads with sparkles.
Keep in mind that the working time of silicone is about 30 minutes. It depends on the temperature and humidity of the air, as well as on the dye used. In humid and warm air, silicone can harden already in the 5th minute. It is very good if you can find a dye that allows you to work with silicone longer.
For example, I realized that from one dye (water-based) my silicone hardens literally after the third bead, I began to add another type of ink (alcohol based) to it, which prevents the silicone from hardening so quickly. The result was a mixture with which I can safely work for 30-40 minutes and manage to make about 10 beads during this time. Experiment! And find the best color and time option.
Keep in mind that too much paint can adversely affect the silicone formula and prevent it from curing at all. Normally, silicone hardens in 24 hours so that it can be touched without disturbing the shape of the bead. If on the third day your beads remain too soft and sticky, then the dye was chosen unsuccessfully - try another one.
The process of making blackberry beads from silicone.
To squeeze out round droplets, squeeze the silicone through the round hole while holding the tip at a 45 degree angle to the surface of the base bead. Squeeze some silicone onto the bead so that the droplet falls with its flat cut onto the surface of the bead in the right place (we start dripping from the top hole). Continue applying even pressure to the syringe or sachet until a round droplet of the desired size is formed. Then stop pressing and sharply move the tip down, smearing the remaining silicone on the base bead (as if wiping it on the bead). Repeat this movement until you get the desired effect. For raspberries and blackberries, you will need to cover the entire bead with droplets, placing them in a circle, close to each other in a checkerboard pattern.
Needles are also made using a round or slightly oval hole. Silicone beads with needlesAim the tip at the base at a right angle. Squeeze out the required amount of paste, stop squeezing and lift the tip sharply up at the same right angle - the silicone will come off the tip, leaving a trace in the form of a needle tail. Place the next drop close to the previous one. Fill the entire surface of the bead.
It is convenient to adjust the length and direction of the "thorns" and clean up various irregularities with the tip of a toothpick.
Roses are best squeezed out of a flat or slightly curved narrow opening. The process of making a silicone rose bead If there is no special nozzle (No. 101 or No. 102), try to make it from a cap from a pen, for example, or mold it from plastic, making the desired slot with a blade or a sharp thin knife. For the base, mold from plastic or choose a cone-shaped bead. Squeeze out the petals in turn in a circle, starting from the top. Point the tip at an angle to the bead (slightly away from it), gradually increasing the angle of inclination.
At the same time as squeezing out the paste, turn the bead on the toothpick so that the petals lie in a spiral.
You yourself can come up with any other flowers - dandelions, chrysanthemums, various buds. You just need to change the shape of the nozzle, as well as the angle, direction and intensity of extrusion of silicone. It is convenient to correct and clean up irregularities with the tip of a toothpick.
It is convenient to attach leaves to flowers and berries even when the beads have completely hardened. Adding leaves to silicone beads Then you can remove the finished berry from the toothpick (if it is a little stuck, you can cut the silicone with nail scissors or half a razor blade), turn it upside down with the side where the sepal should start from and calmly squeeze the leaves, masking the remaining irregularities with them if necessary.
In the absence of a special culinary nozzle (No. 65 or No. 65s), the leaves are made the same as the needles, with a round or oval hole. It is only necessary to direct the hand when tearing off at the angle required by the leaves, not necessarily at 90 degrees. If there is a nozzle, practice squeezing the leaves of the desired size and shape with it. Different force and duration of pressure on the syringe or bag will determine the shape of the leaf (its width, length, location).
The surface of silicone products is rubbery to the touch, and various fibers, threads, especially woolen hairs easily stick to it. Therefore, I would not recommend using silicone for jewelry, especially for winter. Bracelet, earrings, beads will collect all the fibers from your favorite sweater, scarf, or blouse. In summer, wearing such products will be less problematic. Miniature silicone beads in the form of flowers and berries (by the way, who else has ideas of what to squeeze out? hedgehogs, frogs, spider bugs? They can serve as excellent accessories for your dolls, decorative elements, decoration for jars for dried fruits, saucers for jam ( see above - acetic silicone is absolutely harmless a week after application. Such beads are not afraid of either cold or heat, they are not afraid of alcohol, soap and other cleaners. They can be washed, frozen and put in the oven.
Silicone withstands heat up to 200C if no paint is added. Please note that if a dye has been added, the heat-resistant properties of the silicone may change. Industrially manufactured specifically for high temperatures, red sealant withstands temperatures up to 400C. But if, for example, acrylic paints are mixed into transparent silicone, then anything can happen to silicone in the oven already at 100 degrees due to an increase in the percentage of water and acrylic in it, so it’s probably better not to experiment with the oven.
Silicone beads can be stretched in any direction - they are elastic. They can be dropped (if the glass bead inside does not break, nothing will happen to the silicone). But they are very easy to cut and pierce with sharp objects. The widespread use of silicone glue to add volume to decoupage elements was mentioned above. So you can safely include silicone beads in projects using the decoupage technique or, for example, painting on glass (considering that the silicone itself should not be varnished and painted - it will crack).
You have already understood what boundless scope for fantasy opens up this
material? So go and create!
Long gone are the days when artificial flowers in the house caused a negative reaction. Now such plants are no longer associated with crude roses made of paper or plastic and implausible Christmas trees. Silicone colors are a modern invention that looks delicate and fragile, fully conveys all the charm of wildlife. If you do not know what these plants are made of, you will not guess in your life that they are not real.
Varieties of silicone flowers
There are several types of silicone flowers, they all differ mainly in the countries of origin. The most popular manufacturers of such plants are China and Poland. A Chinese flower will cost you about 1.5-2 times more than an artificial flower, such as silk. Polish flowers will be 2-2.5 times more expensive than silk ones. But there is a major advantage here. If you look at a silk work close up, it immediately becomes clear that it is made of fabric. Silicone flowers are made by hand, which is why their price is always much higher. But it is almost impossible to distinguish such plants from living ones. Very often, especially in expensive versions, the manufacturer even conveys the transparency of the petals.
In addition, silicone flowers will stand in your interior for at least ten years. During this time, they will fully recoup their cost. Caring for them is easy: just wash them with water. The paint will not suffer from this at all.
As for the range of colors, then the scope for imagination is practically unlimited. Tulips, roses, orchids... You can always find exactly what you need for your interior. In addition, you can purchase ready-made silicone flower arrangements or individual flowers. In this way, you will be creative by collecting original and unique bouquets to decorate your home.
Pros and cons
If the previous arguments have not completely convinced you yet, then let's look at other advantages of artificial silicone flowers:
- Such flowers do not require watering, transplanting, fertilizing and other "charms" of gardening.
- You won't need a pot of earth or a vase of water that your kids or pets might throw over and stain the carpet. In addition, your pets will not be poisoned if they decide to taste the flower.
- Dry leaves will not fall off, thereby creating a mess in the house.
- For allergy sufferers, silicone plants are generally a real salvation, because this material is hypoallergenic.
- Silicone plants can be placed not only on the windowsill, but also throughout the house, so you can occupy the window sill with other, more useful things.
Of course, nothing is perfect. Even the most ideal artificial plants have their drawbacks:
- You still have to spend some time caring for a silicone flower, but, as mentioned above, it is enough to wash it with running water.
- These plants have no smell. However, this is also quite easy to solve. Try putting a drop of aromatic oil on the silicone, and your flower will be gently fragrant for several days.
- with stem silicone flower must be handled carefully as it may break.
Seasons
"Seasons" is one of the most common ways to use silicone artificial flowers in the interior of a house or apartment. In this case, you have two options. In the first case, with the help of plants, you can “drive out” a dull winter or a bored autumn from home. To do this, decorate the walls, windows, chandeliers and other surfaces of the apartment with silicone branches of sakura and cherries, blossoming apple trees, wreaths of simple but bright flowers. Thus, spring will come to your house even in mid-December.
The second option is more harmonious. It involves a change in the interior of the house following the change of seasons. In summer, you can arrange bouquets of roses, asters, chrysanthemums in vases, dress your house in orange colors in autumn, hang mistletoe sprigs under the ceilings in winter, and in spring unobtrusively decorate rooms with modest compositions of snowdrops, violets and tulips. This method will help you create fabulous comfort in the bedroom or living room, and besides, it will not let you get bored.
Holiday atmosphere
Decorating your home with silicone plants for the holidays is a great idea. Any, even the most modest flower, is able to give the room an elegant look. Each holiday has its own traditions and peculiarities. Here are just a few examples of how you can decorate an apartment before the holiday:
Interior of offices and restaurants
It is not necessary to use silicone flowers only in residential areas. You can give your office a trendy, modern, but at the same time very cozy look by placing some artificial bouquets in it. Large green compositions are especially good for spacious offices. They not only set up visitors in a positive way, but also help to hide some flaws in the room.
Artificial flowers in the interior of a restaurant are always relevant. Especially harmoniously they will fit into themed cafes or restaurants of national cuisine. So, for example, small banzai trees and bamboo stalks (which, by the way, are also made of silicone) will take root in a Japanese restaurant. And in an Italian restaurant, an artificial olive tree or vine will look great.
I offer you a master class on making beads from acetic construction silicone (acidic silicone sealant). When buying a sealant, keep in mind that in addition to silicone, others (urethane, acrylic, etc.) are also sold, the properties of which are not considered in this article. So, if you bought a transparent silicone sealant at a hardware or hardware store (you can also buy white and also tint it, or blue, red or black, to which you can not add dye), open it and smell vinegar - you bought exactly the one which we will talk about below.
Acetic silicone sealants are considered cleaned and therefore they are used in rooms with increased sanitary requirements. They seal the seams in ovens, refrigerators and other places in contact with food. These sealants are environmentally friendly and safe for human health, they can be worked with without special protective equipment, not forgetting only about good ventilation, since caustic acetic acid in high concentrations can irritate sensitive skin and mucous membranes. Safer than acetic sealants are only specially designed sealants for aquariums. Aquarium silicone is absolutely harmless to living organisms. But it does not become so immediately, but 7-14 days after application, i.e., when the vulcanization reaction is completely completed. So it’s worth looking for a sealant not only in hardware and construction stores, but also go to a pet store. Avoid using silicone with antifungal ingredients - it is intended only for grouting joints in toilets and bathrooms, such silicone should not be allowed to come into contact with food.
Silicone after hardening retains rubber-like elasticity and plasticity. Therefore, it is not worth painting and / or varnishing silicone products - it will peel off anyway. If desired, paint (food coloring is best) or ink can be mixed with silicone that has not yet hardened immediately after opening the container, and work with the painted one. When adding a dye, keep in mind that it can change the properties of silicone, slow down or speed up the curing process. Add paint literally drop by drop - for 50-80 ml of silicone, about half a teaspoon of dye is more than enough, and even less is better. Water-based paints speed up the silicone vulcanization process - if you tint silicone with such paints, after 5-10 minutes it will be almost impossible to squeeze it out. Cured silicone has increased moisture resistance, withstands both low and high temperatures (from -50C to +200C), does not dissolve in most acids and alkalis.
To make silicone beads you will need:
1. Silicone (for one "seat" 50-80 ml) transparent, white or any other color you need.
2. Dye (ballpoint or gel pen ink, non-water based paints, food coloring, etc.) if you choose to tint the silicone.
3. Toothpicks, wooden skewers or sticks.
4. Gloves (not latex). You can do without gloves - just try not to get dirty and wipe your hands more often.
5. Toilet paper or tissues (lots).
6. Small plastic bags, or a syringe, or disposable plastic cooking bags.
7. Scissors.
8. Disposable syringe. The ideal option is the smallest sizes of cooking nozzles, with a simple round hole (#2, #3), a hole for leaves (#65s, #65) if desired, and a third for petals (#101, #102). But you can do without nozzles: you just need to make a small slit in the bag and squeeze through it, or use disposable syringes or homemade nozzles made of plastic or caps from pens. If you have a whole set of such nozzles, then you can do anything with silicone.
9. Wax paper, newspaper or cellophane to protect the work surface.
Silicone "production" is quite easily soiled - stock up on napkins and often wipe your hands and everything else about them. Before washing with soap and water, both hands and tools should be thoroughly dried, getting rid of all silicone if possible (remember: silicone hardens precisely from moisture).
After hardening, silicone easily breaks away from plastic and polyethylene. But metal and glass can be a little tricky to clean. If you don't mind, stock up on a special solvent for your sealant, then it will be quite easy to clean the tools. They say that white spirit also helps a lot, but usually just paper napkins are enough for me.
So, you squeezed transparent or white silicone from the tube into a palette (glass ashtray, disposable cup, etc.), mixed it with a wooden (for ice cream) or plastic (for lollipop) stick with a drop of paint or ink.
Then we place the tinted paste in a syringe, in a prepared bag with a nozzle, a bag for silicone, or simply in a bag with a small hole cut in the corner - the size and shape of the squeezed silicone drops will depend on the size and shape of the hole. The photo shows the bag I use. Since it is not cone-shaped (you can use a disposable cooking bag - then everything is very simple), I had to wrap the junction with the nozzle with electrical tape so that the silicone does not flow over the edges, but goes directly into the nozzle. If you use a syringe or a piping bag, this will not be a problem. Yes, and this is not a problem at all if there is electrical tape or adhesive tape in the house.
We put a bead (glass, wooden or plastic) on a toothpick and begin to gently squeeze silicone out of the bag onto it. Base beads for working with silicone The shape of the silicone will also depend on the shape of the base bead. You can take round, oval, conical, elongated and any other beads to achieve the desired result.
Roses and Christmas trees are best squeezed onto cone-shaped or elongated beads.
Raspberries and brambles work well on round, oval and cone-shaped. Corn is best done on a long basis. Pineapple - on the oval. Any other images and flowers may require a base of any shape - the limits are only limited by your imagination. Interesting effects can be achieved with uncolored transparent silicone, applying it to multi-colored beads or beads with sparkles.
Keep in mind that the working time of silicone is about 30 minutes. It depends on the temperature and humidity of the air, as well as on the dye used. In humid and warm air, silicone can harden already in the 5th minute. It is very good if you can find a dye that allows you to work with silicone longer.
For example, I realized that from one dye (water-based) my silicone hardens literally after the third bead, I began to add another type of ink (alcohol based) to it, which prevents the silicone from hardening so quickly. The result was a mixture with which I can safely work for 30-40 minutes and manage to make about 10 beads during this time. Experiment! And find the best color and time option.
Keep in mind that too much paint can adversely affect the silicone formula and prevent it from curing at all. Normally, silicone hardens in 24 hours so that it can be touched without disturbing the shape of the bead. If on the third day your beads remain too soft and sticky, then the dye was chosen unsuccessfully - try another one.
The process of making blackberry beads from silicone.
To squeeze out round droplets, squeeze the silicone through the round hole while holding the tip at a 45 degree angle to the surface of the base bead. Squeeze some silicone onto the bead so that the droplet falls with its flat cut onto the surface of the bead in the right place (we start dripping from the top hole). Continue applying even pressure to the syringe or sachet until a round droplet of the desired size is formed. Then stop pressing and sharply move the tip down, smearing the remaining silicone on the base bead (as if wiping it on the bead). Repeat this movement until you get the desired effect. For raspberries and blackberries, you will need to cover the entire bead with droplets, placing them in a circle, close to each other in a checkerboard pattern.
Needles are also made using a round or slightly oval hole. Silicone beads with needlesAim the tip at the base at a right angle. Squeeze out the required amount of paste, stop squeezing and lift the tip sharply up at the same right angle - the silicone will come off the tip, leaving a trace in the form of a needle tail. Place the next drop close to the previous one. Fill the entire surface of the bead.
It is convenient to adjust the length and direction of the "thorns" and clean up various irregularities with the tip of a toothpick.
Roses are best squeezed out of a flat or slightly curved narrow opening. The process of making a silicone rose bead If there is no special nozzle (No. 101 or No. 102), try to make it from a cap from a pen, for example, or mold it from plastic, making the desired slot with a blade or a sharp thin knife. For the base, mold from plastic or choose a cone-shaped bead. Squeeze out the petals in turn in a circle, starting from the top. Point the tip at an angle to the bead (slightly away from it), gradually increasing the angle of inclination.
At the same time as squeezing out the paste, turn the bead on the toothpick so that the petals lie in a spiral.
You yourself can come up with any other flowers - dandelions, chrysanthemums, various buds. You just need to change the shape of the nozzle, as well as the angle, direction and intensity of extrusion of silicone. It is convenient to correct and clean up irregularities with the tip of a toothpick.
It is convenient to attach leaves to flowers and berries even when the beads have completely hardened. Adding leaves to silicone beads Then you can remove the finished berry from the toothpick (if it is a little stuck, you can cut the silicone with nail scissors or half a razor blade), turn it upside down with the side where the sepal should start from and calmly squeeze the leaves, masking the remaining irregularities with them if necessary.
In the absence of a special culinary nozzle (No. 65 or No. 65s), the leaves are made the same as the needles, with a round or oval hole. It is only necessary to direct the hand when tearing off at the angle required by the leaves, not necessarily at 90 degrees. If there is a nozzle, practice squeezing the leaves of the desired size and shape with it. Different force and duration of pressure on the syringe or bag will determine the shape of the leaf (its width, length, location).
The surface of silicone products is rubbery to the touch, and various fibers, threads, especially woolen hairs easily stick to it. Therefore, I would not recommend using silicone for jewelry, especially for winter. Bracelet, earrings, beads will collect all the fibers from your favorite sweater, scarf, or blouse. In summer, wearing such products will be less problematic. Miniature silicone beads in the form of flowers and berries (by the way, who else has ideas of what to squeeze out? hedgehogs, frogs, spider bugs? They can serve as excellent accessories for your dolls, decorative elements, decoration for jars for dried fruits, saucers for jam ( see above - acetic silicone is absolutely harmless a week after application. Such beads are not afraid of either cold or heat, they are not afraid of alcohol, soap and other cleaners. They can be washed, frozen and put in the oven.
Silicone withstands heat up to 200C if no paint is added. Please note that if a dye has been added, the heat-resistant properties of the silicone may change. Industrially manufactured specifically for high temperatures, red sealant withstands temperatures up to 400C. But if, for example, acrylic paints are mixed into transparent silicone, then anything can happen to silicone in the oven already at 100 degrees due to an increase in the percentage of water and acrylic in it, so it’s probably better not to experiment with the oven.
Silicone beads can be stretched in any direction - they are elastic. They can be dropped (if the glass bead inside does not break, nothing will happen to the silicone). But they are very easy to cut and pierce with sharp objects. The widespread use of silicone glue to add volume to decoupage elements was mentioned above. So you can safely include silicone beads in projects using the decoupage technique or, for example, painting on glass (considering that the silicone itself should not be varnished and painted - it will crack).
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